When Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn founded the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program in 1979, it initiated the meeting and convergence of ancient Asian healing and wisdom teachings with that of modern evidence-based science. Since then, the world has witnessed the development and proliferation of non-dogmatic, non-religious, evidence-based contemporary Mindfulness Based Programs (MBPs). As such, MBP has become one of the mainstream intervention modalities in mind-body medicine, wellness and health arena. Nowadays, close to 40 years after the founding of MBSR, we are witnessing the rapid adoption of contemporary MBPs (in terms of conceptual framework, techniques, and application) in mainland China, from where much of the ancient teachings and wisdom of MBPs originated.

As Dr. Kabat-Zinn returned to mainland China again this spring, his workshops and talks have been very warmly and enthusiastically received by professional circle and general public in all the places that he has visited. Therefore, it can be foreseen that there will be ever more people benefiting from the proliferation of MBPs and practices in the days and years to come. As such, there will be a need and a trend for more people to enter into the MBP teaching arena/profession.

Since Dr. Kabat-Zinn’s visit in 2011 to introduce MBSR to mainland China for the first time, close to 50 people in mainland China have completed the UMASS CFM’s MBSR basic teacher trainings. By the end of May this year, around 70 people in mainland China will have completed the Oxford Mindfulness Centre (OMC)’s MBCT teaching training module 1 –4. In the same time, there are rapidly increasing number of people in mainland embarking on or completing various mindfulness teacher trainings for school, corporate or other discipline. As such, in order to bring mindfulness practice and teaching to all areas and strata of society, we will need good and competent mindfulness teachers. However, “it is up to us, individually and collectively, to recognize what that might mean”.[2]

What kind of knowledge and level of experience should a “good enough” mindfulness teacher have? What kind of training should s/he have gone through before start teaching others? How should s/he convey the teaching in terms of ‘teaching language’ used. i.e. technical, traditional, or colloquial, everyday parlance? How does s/he conduct daily personal practice and deepening retreat practice? How to balance between traditional teaching and contemporary application, or between innovative delivery and respect to linage?

Through recent decades of teaching, application, discussion and reflection, contemporary western mindfulness teachers, educators, scholars and researchers have developed relatively comprehensive standards and methodologies to evaluate mindfulness teaching and teachers. Here in the mainland, some of us, as fellow mindfulness teachers, have reflected on some of these standards, methodologies and guidelines together with our own mindfulness teaching experiences and personal practice and drafted a non-exhaustive proposal (see Appendix 1 below) as a discussion paper to look at what might contribute to good quality mindfulness teaching as well as what might help the continuing growth of a mindfulness teacher. (Along with this letter, we have included the reference documents that have inspired some of the guidelines in this proposal in Appendix section below. 4 5 6 7 8 )

We are very aware that this initial proposal has undoubtedly been influenced and perhaps limited by the personal experience and background of the drafting authors. However, the aim of this letter and proposal is just “a beginning, a means rather than an end.” It is meant to be “exploratory, tentative, and invitational, clay on the wheel. The invitation is to enter into a conversation, to share approaches and perspectives, to reflect together.” We hope this initiative can be “a collective inquiry, dialogue, and investigation within the community of mindfulness teachers.”[9]

It is our wish that by initiating and continuing the discussion on this topic, it will help to foster the growth and development of mindfulness teacher and their teaching competence and quality. With the collective interest and contribution from our colleagues in the mindfulness teaching community as well as the interest from the general public, we trust that mindfulness-based programs (MBP) will continue to flourish in mainland China, thereby bringing health, peace and blessing to humanity.